Many Benefits To National Service Program

A recent letter writer bemoaned the idea of a national service program [July 22, "National Service Would Foster Dependence"]. As a libertarian, it pains me to say that there may be benefits.

Keeping workers out of the workforce would drive up wages ending a trend of declining real wages. Regulating the length of service would give us full employment.

A conservation/energy corps could repair ecological damage working on Superfund sites and brownfields. Its impact on crime levels is apt to be rather positive. Young men out in a forest camp and with a purpose in life will be committing few offenses. It could easily incorporate an educational component: Just work for your country and your academic or technical education is free.

This workforce could turn our agricultural system away from its corporate factory model to a system of co-ops, community-supported agriculture and supported family farms with an emphasis on organics.

It could serve to inculcate political values of democracy and human rights which are desperately needed to serve as a glue to hold our nation together. And, it will save money in the long run by improving our most valuable asset: human capital.

A few less nuclear bombs or new delivery systems -- now up for an extra $35 billion -- could go a long way just to start.